Re: tOfficial Astronomy Thread

[Trapper Gus]

Just under a year away now.  Running a pretty straight shot over Indianapolis, Cleveland, and Buffalo.  Might see a few seconds of totality close as Toledo.



2024 Total Eclipse

Two solar eclipses in the next year.

On October 14, 2023, an annular solar eclipse will cross North, Central, and South America creating a path of annularity. An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth while at its farthest point from Earth. Because the Moon is farther away from Earth, it does not completely block the Sun. This will create a “ring of fire” effect in the sky for those standing in the path of annularity.

The 2023 and 2024 Solar Eclipses: Map and Data

Cleveland Rocks!

Are the Northern Lights still rocking it?

In future news:  https://www.axios.com/2023/04/12/ariane-5-rocket-juice-mission-jupiter

[Floyd Robertson]

Speaking of Northern Lights...

Northern lights in Michigan: How to best catch them now

Early spring offers one of the best times to view the northern lights in Michigan and, generally speaking, the farther north and greater distance from big city lights you can travel the better.

There is still time in April to catch the ethereal light show, though it’s elusive, requiring a mix of clear skies, a dark night, keeping tabs on meteorological forecasts and a bit of luck.

The high northern latitudes of the Upper Peninsula and its unobstructed view from the southern coast of Lake Superior make it one of the best places in the U.S. mainland to catch aurora borealis, which appears across the night sky and are most commonly seen near the planet’s northern and southern poles.

[tGreenWay]

My wife and BiL started talking about next year’s total eclipse and next thing I know is she’s making plans to join about two dozen people in the Northeastern US to watch this thing. That’s fine, I’m game. Then Mrs. GreenWay called and said the trip is off. Hotels everywhere are sold out, except for one no name place that looks like it was the scene of a grisly, unsolved, non-drug related multiple homicide that wanted $1,100/night—and it was 90 minutes from where they wanted/needed to be. Everybody said screw it.
If you’re looking to travel somewhere for the blackout, it might take longer and cost more to find something.

[The Pantry]

My wife and BiL started talking about next year’s total eclipse and next thing I know is she’s making plans to join about two dozen people in the Northeastern US to watch this thing. That’s fine, I’m game. Then Mrs. GreenWay called and said the trip is off. Hotels everywhere are sold out, except for one no name place that looks like it was the scene of a grisly, unsolved, non-drug related multiple homicide that wanted $1,100/night—and it was 90 minutes from where they wanted/needed to be. Everybody said screw it.
If you’re looking to travel somewhere for the blackout, it might take longer and cost more to find something.

Thought about driving to Ohio for a day trip but said fuck it. It'll get dark enough here, especially if it's cloudy.

[Trapper Gus]

My wife and BiL started talking about next year’s total eclipse and next thing I know is she’s making plans to join about two dozen people in the Northeastern US to watch this thing. That’s fine, I’m game. Then Mrs. GreenWay called and said the trip is off. Hotels everywhere are sold out, except for one no name place that looks like it was the scene of a grisly, unsolved, non-drug related multiple homicide that wanted $1,100/night—and it was 90 minutes from where they wanted/needed to be. Everybody said screw it.
If you’re looking to travel somewhere for the blackout, it might take longer and cost more to find something.

Thought about driving to Ohio for a day trip but said fuck it. It'll get dark enough here, especially if it's cloudy.

I'm wondering how close to the center of the path Bowling Green is, as I have a sibling who lives there. The SO and one of the kids went out to the west cost a few years ago to see the last full eclipse.

[The Pantry]

Thought about driving to Ohio for a day trip but said fuck it. It'll get dark enough here, especially if it's cloudy.

I'm wondering how close to the center of the path Bowling Green is, as I have a sibling who lives there. The SO and one of the kids went out to the west cost a few years ago to see the last full eclipse.

Bowling Green OH will see almost 3 minutes of totality

Eclipse2024.org's 2024 Eclipse Community Page for Bowling Green, Ohio

[Trapper Gus]

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-65273857

[Jake from State Farm]

SpaceX launch at 9:00. They're launching the big one. 50-50 chance it blows up.

[Floyd Robertson]

Scrub a dub dub

[tw]1647961364957130756[/tw]

[Floyd Robertson]

Launch might happen as early as 9:28AM...tick, tock, tick, tock...

[Motown Spartan]

It blew up. That was cool!! (I know, I know, it was expected to)

[Floyd Robertson]

Spaceship go boom!

[tw]1649045802332073986[/tw]

At least they have a sense of humor.

[Motown Spartan]

Spaceship go boom!

[tw]1649045802332073986[/tw]

At least they have a sense of humor.

Yeah, it may have been unscheduled but it was not unexpected. Just getting it off the ground was the goal.

[Robert J Sakimano]

Looks like the rocket had one too many Bud Lights.

[Robert J Sakimano]

"I wouldn't say we imploded, really.. I'd just call it a rapid unscheduled disassembly".

- Tom Izzo

[DWags]

"I wouldn't say we imploded, really.. I'd just call it a rapid unscheduled disassembly".

- Tom Izzo

[Floyd Robertson]

[tw]1651553286531497985[/tw]

[Floyd Robertson]

If Voyager 2 is 18 hours away at the speed of light, how long it takes radio signals from Voyager 2 to reach earth, or vice versa?

[Trapper Gus]

If Voyager 2 is 18 hours away at the speed of light, how long it takes radio signals from Voyager 2 to reach earth, or vice versa?

18 hours.  (Light & Radio Waves are all part of the Electromagnetic Spectrum & all of it travels at the same speed in a vacuum such as space.)

Round trip, such as a command and acknowledgement of said command is 36 hours.

[Floyd Robertson]

If Voyager 2 is 18 hours away at the speed of light, how long it takes radio signals from Voyager 2 to reach earth, or vice versa?

18 hours.

Round trip, such as a command and acknowledgement of said command is 36 hours.

Good thing I'm not a scientist.

[Trapper Gus]

https://apnews.com/article/mars-china-rover-water-937fb473f76d75cc9f268e6e720c864f

More evidence that Mars once was wet.

[The Pantry]

Bit of cloud cover tonight but might get to see Northern lights in most parts of Michigan.

Northern lights expected Wednesday night in US. Here's where and when to see the aurora.

[Trapper Gus]

https://www.axios.com/2023/05/11/hubble-constant-debate-universe

Independent method to measure Hubble Constant agrees with 67 kilometers per second per megaparsec.

At 67 kilometers per second per megaparsec the entire universe is expanding at about 1,911,350 kilometers per second.

[The Pantry]

Pretty clear tonight. Nice waxing crescent. Venus to the left?

[tGreenWay]

As I was walking the dog back into the house around midnight one night last week, I noticed what looked like a weak aurora borealis overhead. I dismissed it as odd cloud cover because it’s exceptionally rare to see the northern lights this far south, let alone overhead and without darker skies. Turns out it was an aurora, even though it wasn’t anything worth waking my wife about.

https://statenews.com/article/2023/05/northern-light-spotting-in-east-lansing?ct=content_open&cv=cbox_featured

[Nordic]

This can’t be good

Brightest gamma-ray burst ever seen, the largest known explosion since Big Bang, has a unique jet structure unlike any other

[MSU addict]

This can’t be good

Brightest gamma-ray burst ever seen, the largest known explosion since Big Bang, has a unique jet structure unlike any other

I was really worried about it 2.4 billion years ago, but lately I have come to accept it.

[Trapper Gus]

J Webb may have recorded some population III stars, aka first stars in the universe.

https://www.universetoday.com/161888/has-jwst-finally-found-the-first-stars-in-the-univese/

[DWags]

J Webb may have recorded some population Iii stars, aka first stars in the universe.

https://www.universetoday.com/161888/has-jwst-finally-found-the-first-stars-in-the-univese/

As Nordic would say: J Webb fucks.

[tGreenWay]

This can’t be good

Brightest gamma-ray burst ever seen, the largest known explosion since Big Bang, has a unique jet structure unlike any other

Well, bye.

[tGreenWay]

This can’t be good

Brightest gamma-ray burst ever seen, the largest known explosion since Big Bang, has a unique jet structure unlike any other

I was really worried about it 2.4 billion years ago, but lately I have come to accept it.

I just hope I was coincidentally covering my man parts when it happened.

[Trapper Gus]

NEW YORK (AP) — Wake up early this weekend to catch a celestial sight: Five planets will line up in the sky before sunrise on Saturday.

Saturn, Neptune, Jupiter, Uranus and Mercury will appear together, weather permitting. Here’s how to spot the planet parade.

https://apnews.com/article/how-to-see-five-planets-align-122576794b81e4f099b276c456a4bbbd

[Rick Saunders]

NEW YORK (AP) — Wake up early this weekend to catch a celestial sight: Five planets will line up in the sky before sunrise on Saturday.

Saturn, Neptune, Jupiter, Uranus and Mercury will appear together, weather permitting. Here’s how to spot the planet parade.

https://apnews.com/article/how-to-see-five-planets-align-122576794b81e4f099b276c456a4bbbd

For what it's worth when the mainstream media says "line up" what they mean is that they are within about a forearm's visual distance in the sky. Linearly they are always on the ecliptic and never ever ever do 5 planets occlude or transit one another simultaneously. It like these stupid vampire dripping blood moons that are supposed to be special but really just dumb made up names for a reg'lar ol' milk-white full moon that happens every September or whatever.

[Trapper Gus]

In a new paper just accepted for publication in the journal Classical & Quantum Gravity, theoretical physicist Lucas Lombriser showed that one can reformulate the Universe to not be expanding, after all. Instead, you can rescale your coordinates so that all of the fundamental constants within your Universe change in a specific fashion over time, mimicking cosmic expansion in an actually non-expanding Universe.

https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/expanding-universe-mirage/

If instead of space expanding in the space-time continuum, time, aka the rate of change, could be speeding up.  That creates the same observational results.

https://www.ndtv.com/science/time-appeared-to-run-five-times-slow-in-the-early-universe-say-study-4176605

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-023-02029-2.epdf

[Trapper Gus]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/rare-spectacle-northern-lights-may-be-visible-in-17-states-next-week/ar-AA1dzJnP?OCID=ansmsnnews11

For those who dream of witnessing the northern lights, an opportunity could present itself next week. The aurora borealis is expected to be visible over 17 U.S. states on Thursday, July 13.

The states that could potentially get a glimpse of this rare spectacle include Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Maine, Maryland, New York, New Hampshire, Washington, Vermont, Idaho, Massachusetts, Wyoming, and Indiana.

[MSU addict]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/rare-spectacle-northern-lights-may-be-visible-in-17-states-next-week/ar-AA1dzJnP?OCID=ansmsnnews11

For those who dream of witnessing the northern lights, an opportunity could present itself next week. The aurora borealis is expected to be visible over 17 U.S. states on Thursday, July 13.

The states that could potentially get a glimpse of this rare spectacle include Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Maine, Maryland, New York, New Hampshire, Washington, Vermont, Idaho, Massachusetts, Wyoming, and Indiana.

Realizing of course you are not the author - but how is Maryland on that list?

[Trapper Gus]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/rare-spectacle-northern-lights-may-be-visible-in-17-states-next-week/ar-AA1dzJnP?OCID=ansmsnnews11

For those who dream of witnessing the northern lights, an opportunity could present itself next week. The aurora borealis is expected to be visible over 17 U.S. states on Thursday, July 13.

The states that could potentially get a glimpse of this rare spectacle include Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Maine, Maryland, New York, New Hampshire, Washington, Vermont, Idaho, Massachusetts, Wyoming, and Indiana.

Realizing of course you are not the auth7or - but how is Maryland on that list?

North Western Maryland? Seems like PA should be on there, too.

[Trapper Gus]

Maybe the editor saw "Washington" and thought DC, not State of?

Webb is finding Black Holes near the start of spacetime.

https://apnews.com/article/nasa-webb-space-telescope-black-hole-e8f54cd9d57284dd256091d22d0b9940

[The Pantry]

2 meteor showers to team up for an astronomical doubleheader

[Floyd Robertson]

Tonight is the super blue moon. No, the moon won't look blue. It's called blue because of the expression "once in a blue moon", or when it a full moon happens twice in a month or 4x in a season. The next super blue moon will be in 2037. Saturn will also be visible about 5 degrees to the upper right of the moon.

Super blue moon visible Wednesday night. How to see it in Michigan

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